India’s women have no group stage in Japan, and their gold medal defence starts against the hosts

Three days after lifting the Asia Cup in Dubai, India’s women landed in Japan with a different kind of tournament in front of them. There is no group stage at the Asian Games. Eight teams, four quarter-finals, and a gold medal decided inside six days. India’s title defence begins and could end on the same morning.

Knockout from the first ball

India play hosts Japan in the fourth quarter-final at Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin on Friday, 18 September, at 2pm local time, which is 10.30am in India. Win it and they are in a semi-final on 20 September against whoever comes through Bangladesh against China. Lose it and the defence of the gold is over before most of the Asian Games has started.

That is a strange shape for a team used to the safety net of a league phase. At a World Cup or an Asia Cup you can play badly for an hour and still qualify. Here the first mistake is the last one. Pakistan play Thailand, Malaysia play Sri Lanka, and the eight teams become four inside two days.

On paper the quarter-final is a mismatch. Japan are an ICC Associate who played their first women’s T20I in 2019 and have 61 behind them now, 29 of them won, most recently against Malaysia three days ago. India arrive off a final in which they made 183 for 5 and bowled Sri Lanka out for 111. Still, on an unfamiliar surface against a side with nothing to lose in front of its own crowd, mismatches have a way of getting interesting for about eight overs. India will want this one dull.

What they are defending

The gold India are carrying into Japan was won on 25 September 2023 in Hangzhou, in a final that was not comfortable at all. India made 116 for 7, which in a T20 final is a total you apologise for. Smriti Mandhana made 46 and Jemimah Rodrigues 42, and the 73 they put on for the second wicket was most of the innings.

Then Titas Sadhu bowled. Sri Lanka were 14 for 3 inside five overs and never recovered, finishing on 97 for 8. India won by 19 runs and took the first Asian Games cricket gold in their history.

Of the two batters who built that innings, only one is here. Jemimah Rodrigues tore her right hamstring playing in The Hundred on 3 August, a high-grade tear that ruled her out of the Asia Cup and the Asian Games. Titas Sadhu is not in the squad either. Mandhana is, as vice-captain.

The fifteen that travelled

Harmanpreet Kaur captains, with Mandhana as her deputy. Pratika Rawal came in for Rodrigues. Richa Ghosh and G. Kamalini are the two keepers, and the bowling leans on Deepti Sharma, Sree Charani, Radha Yadav, Renuka Thakur, Kranti Gaud and Arundhati Reddy, with Shreyanka Patil included subject to fitness. Shafali Verma and Bharti Fulmali fill out the batting alongside Nandni Sharma.

It is essentially the Asia Cup side, which cuts both ways. They are in rhythm and they have just beaten Sri Lanka by 72 runs in a final. They have also played a lot of cricket in the last fortnight, in the Gulf, and have now moved five hours east of Dubai into a climate nothing like it.

Head coach Amol Muzumdar has framed the trip as something his players are looking forward to rather than something to survive. The multi-sport setting is the novelty, and he is right that it is different. Cricketers do not usually live in a village with judoka and sprinters, and they do not usually play for a medal.

Six days, three wins

The route is short and unforgiving. Quarter-final on 18 September, semi-final on 20 September, and both medal matches on 22 September, the bronze at 9am local time and the gold at 2pm. Three wins is the whole tournament.

India have won eight Asia Cups and one Asian Games gold, and the second of those is the one with a medal ceremony attached. The men’s tournament at the same ground does not start until 24 September, so for a week the women have the Indian cricket audience to themselves.

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